


Assistant

by tanyasm10



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cooking, Fluff, Heith - Freeform, M/M, Nervous Keith, hunk in a yellow apron because why not?, nervous hunk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 19:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11562237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanyasm10/pseuds/tanyasm10
Summary: Hunk asks Keith to help him out in the kitchen





	Assistant

**Author's Note:**

> I'd written this MONTHS ago and posted it on my tumblr. Also, picturing Hunk in an apron has added five years to my life span

Keith Kogane prided himself for keeping a level head most of the time. When times got tough, he knew he could trust himself to not get into a panic and think of a way forward. It was just who he was.

But not now.

To be fair, the entire situation kind of threw him off a little bit. There he was, brooding as he normally did, when a certain yellow paladin came bursting into his room with a bright smile on his face, telling him that he needed an assistant chef and apparently it was Keith’s (un)lucky day.

He normally rotated ‘assistants’ between Pidge and Lance. Apparently he’d had Shiro once but that ended up as a disaster. As much as the paladins admired Shiro as a leader, he was terrible in the kitchen. Hunk never asked Allura or Coran, not that Keith could blame him; Altean food was really weird so he tended to avoid them like the plague, even though they offered to help on many occasions:

But he’d never asked _Keith_ before. Not once. And Keith had to admit that though he _knew_ he shouldn’t have been bothered by it, he kind of was. Every time Hunk would go into the common room, declaring his assistant for the day, a bit of Keith got…hopeful. Though he knew he would ultimately turn him down in that suave, cool way he adopted, at least he would have been acknowledged.

But he never was. At least, not until today.

“Keith, please help me out today?”

It was so out of the blue that, though Keith had initially planned to decline, he found himself stuttering out a “Yeah, sure,” and was whisked away by the incredibly happy yellow paladin.

Though Keith had ventured throughout the ship plenty of times, he hardly went into the kitchen unless it was for water or a snack. Usually when Hunk was cooking, Keith was in another room, so he was surprised when Hunk turned back to him in the kitchen with… _a yellow apron?_

Keith couldn’t stop staring.

“Okay, so I was doing a bit of experimenting earlier and I _think_ I can make the Altean equivalent of cupcakes.”

The red paladin’s eyes shot up. When was the last time he’d ever had a cupcake? Back when he was still in the garrison? _Before_? It had been so long. There was a bakery close to his home that sold the best ones he’d ever had. He’d gone there every Saturday as a kid with his dad and he’d always get the chocolate one with the strawberry on top. The entire place just smelled of good food and comfort and _home._

“Just don’t get your hopes up, okay? Last time I tried to bake, well…”

“Your cookies saved us in the end, so don’t worry about it,” Keith said matter-of-factly. “If they’re inedible maybe Coran could use them to jumpstart the engines.”

Hunk chuckled as he went to fetch the ingredients. “Okay, that was a good one. Let’s get started.”

“I’ve never made cupcakes before.”

Hunk paused and looked back him. “I’ll guide you through it. Don’t worry about it.”

And then he smiled and, _quiznak,_ it was like his joy practically radiated from him and Keith, well, he couldn’t help but smile back, albeit softly. It’s not like he could help it. Hunk’s joy was practically contagious. He was like a bright sunny day, and though they were in the middle of space and Earth’s sun was a ton of lightyears away…Hunk was becoming more and more like the paladin’s sun.

Sweet Maker, that sounded like something out of one of those terrible teen romance movies.

Keith was forced out of his thoughts when Hunk placed a large bag of…whatever in his hands. It nearly knocked the wind out of him and he almost stumbled, but Hunk steadied him.

“Whoa, you okay there Keith?”

His touch was like electricity. Keith rushed out of it as soon as he could, not expecting it, not knowing what else to do.

Hunk looked slightly taken aback and, disappointed? Keith couldn’t tell. Usually Hunk was an open book, but at that exact moment he was difficult to read. Like he didn’t want Keith to know how exactly he was feeling.

Awkwardness heavily settled in. Red and yellow were on opposite sides of the kitchen, not daring to say or do anything.

Keith cleared his throat. “So uh, what did you want me to do with this?” He gestured at the bag in his arms.

Relief washed over Hunk’s. “Um, yeah, there’re some jugs in the cabinet over there. Altean measurement is pretty weird, but just take the medium one and measure two of those.”

Keith nodded mechanically and set to work. The two of them soon relaxed into a routine. Hunk was doing most of the talking, he didn’t seem to mind it much either and any of the previous awkwardness was melted away.

The way they worked was pretty methodically. Hunk would ask Keith for a spoon or direct him to certain places for weird ingredients. Keith didn’t do any of the actual baking, which he was fine with. Hunk looked like he knew what he was doing.

But there was one thing Keith noticed over time. Throughout their time in the kitchen, after that one incident, Hunk never touched him. And it wasn’t coincidentally either. If the two of them were close, Keith noticed Hunk subtly adjust himself slightly so they were further apart.

He was doing everything in his power to make Keith feel comfortable. He was joking around and laughing so Keith was too busy enjoying himself to notice it at first, but he was adapting himself to accommodate _him_. It hit Keith in waves. It made him feel grateful that he would go through such lengths for him. But at the same time…

At the same time he thought about Hunk’s relationship with the others. About how he’d ruffle Pidge’s hair, bump shoulders with Lance, sweep Allura up in a hug, high five Shiro, pat Coran’s back. Hunk was a tactile person. He was _affectionate._ It was just who he was. And now Keith yearned for the same. He wanted Hunk to touch him; ruffle his hair, bump his shoulder, be swept up in those arms which he knew probably felt _safe—_

“Dude, you okay?”

“What?”

Hunk was looking at him in concern. “I said we need to put these in the oven, but you kind of zoned out there. Do you need to lie down? I can take it from here.”

“No, I’m fine.” He found that he said this almost too quickly. “I…”

_I really like spending time with you._

The concerned look didn’t leave, but Hunk put the cupcakes in the oven anyway and set the timer for fifteen dobashes.

There was a comfortable silence as Hunk cleared away the supplies after taking off his apron. Keith stared after him contemplatively before finally asking him the question that was plaguing his mind the whole time.

“Why me?”

Hunk looked back at him in confusion.

“I mean…you always ask Pidge or Lance to help you out in the kitchen. Were they too busy for you or something?”

Hunk’s face thawed slightly. “You were the first one I asked today, actually. I thought it would be good for you to get out of whatever headspace you’ve been in the past few days.”

“But…you’ve never asked me before.”

The yellow paladin chuckled sheepishly. “Because I’d always assume you’d say no. And honestly I couldn’t really stand the thought of—”

He stopped speaking abruptly, as though he’d said too much.

“The thought of what?”

With a sigh, Hunk palmed his face. “Please don’t make me say it.”

Now Keith was curious. Whatever was going on was really bugging Hunk and making him uncomfortable and wasn’t one way of getting rid of discomfort talking about it?

“Hunk, talk to me. What’s going on?”

Hunk looked away, avoiding eye contact. In that moment, Keith couldn’t help but think that for someone so large he looked really small.

‘ththougofrejction,” he mumbled.

“What?”

“The thought of rejection,” Hunk said slightly louder this time, still avoiding eye contact.

With the way he said it, Keith knew immediately that he wasn’t talking about cooking anymore.

There was a silence, but only externally. On the inside it was as if those words had opened the floodgates that contained Keith’s emotions. He was swamped, floored, he could barely stand up.

All this time. _All this time._

“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to ruin the dynamic of the team. We work so well together. I just…” Hunk trailed off and scratched the back of his head. “I’m sorry.”

Was he…was he seriously apologising?

“I didn’t know…”

“Would it have changed anything?”

Would it? If Keith had known that Hunk felt that way about him…

“Look, we can act like this never happened. I don’t mind,” Hunk continued, taking Keith’s silence as a ‘no’.

But Keith knew, he could _see_ that Hunk minded. That Hunk _cared_. That this was _killing_ him.

Keith walked up to him, closing the gap between them. He reached out to touch his arm, hesitantly at first, before he placed it there completely.

“It would have changed everything.”

Hunk froze at his words, completely _overwhelmed._

Then, something snapped and Keith was wrapped in his arms. And it was everything he thought it would be. It felt safe. It felt like how that bakery he went to smelt. It felt like home.

“Is…this okay?” Hunk asked after a moment, remembering how Keith reacted to his touch earlier.

Keith looked up at the yellow paladin before stretching up and pressing their lips together in a soft kiss.

“No. This is perfect.”


End file.
